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Enough Already!

For those of you who want to destroy Christmas for others: Stop it! There is nothing better than Christmas. You want to see evil in everything, well let me show you some good. If you can’t see anything but evil, then look away or this may blind you!

Christmas is the very spirit of God, to help, to fulfill, to surprise, to spread love! To forget all worries, and focus on others, to fulfill hearts, spread peace, to help others, to show all the very spirit of God.

Some have a problem getting this. Case in point: I recently ran across one of Mr. David Grossman’s exposes on violence in the video game industry, and his theory bothers me, especially during this time of the year.

Now, before I go on, I will admit to not reading any of Mr. Grossman’s exposes. However, I have heard, seen, and read a few of his interviews. This has given me a fair handle on his theory. I also know people, quite well in fact, that play these so-called violent video games, and watch violent movies, you know the good action films. So here is my rebuttal to the idea that violent media is breeding a generation of killers.

Mr. Grossman’s idea is that if you look at the spree killers–school-shooters in particular–you’ll see that they all played video games. And you know what? He is right. But that’s not very surprising. Most school-shooters are boys. And video gaming is a male-oriented industry. Let’s face it, until video games get into the self-confessional, romantic-comedy, or otherwise emotionally-based works, they probably won’t attract girls by the droves. With the sheer numbers of boys and men who play these so-called violent video games, we should see far more spree killings than we do. So there has to be more to this theory to make it work.

Maybe it has to do with the particular games that are being played. Now I’ll admit to not particularly caring about others’ likes in entertainment, unless they are close to me. So the only game that I know any of the recent spree killers played was “Doom.” The game made infamous due to the Columbine killers. This must be an awful, horrifyingly violent game if it could turn two teenage boys into murderers, right?

Um, not quite. You see here’s where the idea of violent media falls apart. Violence is, for the most part, a side effect of the story line. So you can’t really just look at the violence in “Doom” to see the problem. You have to look at the storyline as well. And when you do that, you find that the storyline of “Doom” is that the player, you since it is a first person shooter–this is a genre, not a warning–, is trying to close the gates of Hell. Not very horrifying is it. Okay, so there has to be something else.

What could cause so many people to become spree killers? The easiest things to blame it on would be the video games, and bullying. But, just like the gaming, there are many people who didn’t go on a killing spree just because someone made their lives hell. Besides, most bullied victims turn the gun, so to speak, on themselves first.

It’s time we try something new. If the fact of just seeing the Scripture “Thou shalt not steal,” protects Memorial Day decorations from being swiped, how much more could wearing the Scripture warning “Thou shalt not kill” save lives? People, including students, will wear wristbands for a cause. Why not let the wristbands do double duty? Add the Ten Commandments to the wristband. Who needs to know? Other than God, whose business is it? It might just buy us all time for the parents of those predisposed to such actions, to get to the root of the problem

Bad things might happen, but sweeping generalizations do nothing to solve the problem. You have to take things on a case by case basis. We’re individuals, and we have individualized reasoning.

Things are things which could be used for evil or good by us. If you are evil then you see evil in many things. Smoking, drinking, video games, movies, monuments, guns, people, even Santa Claus (and don‘t try to say he is the same as Satan, that‘s like saying God is the same as a dog )! But if you are good then good can come from anything. God created all things and said: It Is Good! If you persist in seeing these things as evil, perhaps you need to become part of the Church, part of Jesus’ Body, as God warned us that evil comes from the heart of man.